Ingredients matter. Bean paste recipe from Elena Petrova.

Our guest today is  Elena Petrova, a big fan of a healthy lifestyle and fitness and she is fond of cooking. Lena is writing about these topics in her  blog “Ingredients matter”.  So birds of a feather flock together. Lena has transformed to a vegan diet from being long time  vegetarian, she also works in the financial industry. Her  blog “Ingredients matter” feature many vegan recipes.

Exclusively  for Magic Green Kitchen Lena is telling about  one of her favorite, nutritious and healthy ingredients  – beans and shares a recipe.

“There are  kitchen staples.

If you translate this term in Russian, then it turns into something like a basic product which can be often serve as one of the key products for cooking and should be  always available in the kitchen .

Legumes  are one of my kitchen staples.

I always keep  in my kitchen locker several types of bean – red, white, black string beans, chickpeas, lentils, peas. Some legumes like lentils and peas I buy in a dry form, and chickpeas and beans are usually already cooked. From ready-made beans, you can prepare many dishes, while saving  an hour of your time.

Beans is the life saver ingredient.

Sometimes for dinner I can make a stew of vegetables adding  beans, sometimes cutlets from beans. Even my husband, who does not accept the idea of a full dinner without meat, fell in love with bean cutlets. My favorite legumes dish is bean paste.

Bean paste is just universal.

• It is a great alternative to butter. It can be spread over bread as the base for any sandwich. For example, you can take pita bread, put bean paste and some different vegetables. So you get a nutritious and delicious snack.
• Bean paste can be eaten with sliced crispy vegetables such as carrots, fresh celery, bell peppers.
• Bean paste can be served as a garnish to the main course

I would like to share a bean paste recipe today.

For those, who keeps track of protein in the diet, beans are a perfect source of it.

100 grams of boiled beans contains 9 grams of protein. For comparison, the daily intake of protein  in accordance with WHO recommendations is 40 – 55 g per day, depending on the weight. In addition to protein beans contain a lot of fiber – almost 7 grams of fiber per 100 grams. 200 grams of beans per day comprise a half of the daily intake of fiber. Fiber supports the colonization of the intestines with beneficial bacteria, reduces the level of bad cholesterol, removes toxins.

The high contain on protein does not limit the many other healthy effects of beans.

Here are a few:

• Calcium – 5% of the reference daily intake (RDI)
• Iron 12% RDI
• Vitamin B6 11% RDI
• Vitamin K 4% RDI
• Vitamin E 5% RDI
• Vitamin B9 43% RDI
• Potassium 12% RDI
• Phosphorus 15% RDI

* If you can not find a “Mediterranean herbs” mix, replace with a mix of dried basil and oregano

** If you want to reduce the fat content of the product, replace the olive oil with water

*** The paste is homogeneous when using a 900W or more food processor. If the device is less powerful  then it may take a little more time to prepare.